


Hospital

by BrokenDreams



Category: Life Is Strange (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Timelines, Alternate Universe - Time Travel, Anxiety, Arcadia Gay, Blackwell Academy (Life is Strange), Depression, Drama & Romance, F/F, Gay, Hurt/Comfort, Lesbians, Mental Health Issues, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Rewind Powers (Life Is Strange), Storm - Freeform, alternative universe
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-05
Updated: 2019-07-15
Packaged: 2020-06-09 20:21:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 12,663
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19483297
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BrokenDreams/pseuds/BrokenDreams
Summary: Max Caulfield went back in time at the beckoning of Chloe Price, only to interfere with the shooting in the bathroom. Chloe survives, but falls into a coma. With her best friend comatose because of her actions, Max must navigate a new world where everything is different from what it was originally. Suffering from severe mental distress, as a result of the previous timeline, Max struggles to deal with her condition in a world where no one will ever know what happened to her in the Dark Room. Because no one would ever believe her. As timelines begin to fall in on each other, can Max and Chloe come together to stop something even more horrific than the storm?





	1. Back to Monday

**Author's Note:**

> My partner and I were discussing some AUs for Life is Strange, and this came up in conversation. A hospital ending based on the concept of the original ending that was cut by Dontnod for whatever reason. This is my take on that ending. I hope you enjoy, there's gonna be drama, angst, and shit like that. My favoriteeee. So enjoy!! This is sorta a rewrite of my other one where Max gets shot, but I think there's a lot of opportunity for this fic for me personally.

Max made the final choice. Perhaps it wasn’t her smartest idea, but in the moment of it all, she did as Chloe instructed her to do. Looking deep into the photograph of the blue butterfly, Max could feel it all going backwards. Back to that fateful Monday, where she discovered her powers for the first time. When she first saw Chloe die at the hands of Jefferson’s protégé, Nathan Prescott. And now she would be forced to relive through that hell all over again.

Why did she do this? She regretted this choice almost immediately, but she was stuck with it now. As she landed in the mind of herself from four days prior, she could feel her head unable to perform the rewind. Between the storm and the rewind here, she understood why. It was a similar feeling as to when Kate had nearly jumped off the roof. A feeling of helplessness. Something she would have to live with for the rest of her life.

Taking a deep breath, she opened her eyes. She was there now. Back in the girl’s bathroom of Blackwell Academy, more appropriately known as Blackhell. She could hear him. Oh, how she hated his voice. It was grating enough when he attempted to deflect one-hundred percent of the blame to Jefferson, and it was grating enough now. Jefferson, sure, was responsible for molding Nathan into his follower, but he still made the decision to bring a gun. He made the decision to kill Chloe. He made the decision to kidnap Rachel. He was responsible for being Jefferson’s lackey.

Nathan was talking to himself already, words that were permanently etched into Max’s head. It was making her angry. What if she revealed herself to stop Chloe from even being put up against the gun? But she would probably end up dead instead. And with that, the storm might come again with no one to stop it. Max didn’t want to watch Chloe die, she really didn’t. She wanted Chloe alive. She wanted to hug Chloe and kiss that stupid punk all over again. It wasn’t hard to tell that Max was in love with Chloe. She had killed Chloe in the other timeline, all to stop Chloe from hurting.

Max could hear the door open and began listening to the sounds of her love. Of Chloe Price. It as her, no doubt. A different Chloe, unaware of the previous days they had spent together. Max gulped silently, not wanting to cry and break down before them. She couldn’t rewind. She had to do something. She had to stop him. That became all that was on her mind. Stopping Nathan and saving Chloe. It was not what Chloe asked her to do, but she needed to. For her own selfish reasons, she wanted Chloe Price to live once more. Things were beginning to heat up, as she could hear Nathan.

“Nobody would even miss your punk-ass, would they?” Nathan said, his voice filled with anger. He stuck the pistol he held right into Chloe’s stomach. To Max, it was now or never to do as she needed to do.

Max stepped out from behind the stalls. She knew that Nathan had an itchy trigger finger, ready to shoot anything that moved.

“No!” Max yelled, stepping out from behind the stalls. She reached her hand out, reaching desperately for anything to happen.

“What the fuck?” Nathan said, raising the gun up a bit and firing it at Chloe. Fuck, Max thought to herself. Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck! This was not how it was supposed to happen, not at all. The bullet, however, did not tear through Chloe in the same way, unbeknownst to Max. The bullet was aimed higher up, firing at Chloe through a different point of entry. Chloe collapsed to the ground, groaning in pain. Max took that as a good enough sign for now. Chloe collapsing, but still alive.

“Ah, fuck!” Chloe screamed aloud, falling to the ground and clutching her stomach in immediate pain. The blood was coming out of her, and Chloe knew to keep pressure on the wound. Max leaped forward, ready to kill Nathan with his own gun. But she wasn’t as strong as he was, not at all. A swift kick to the gut, sent Max onto the ground.

“Look at what the fuck you’ve done!” Nathan said, turning the gun around on Max. “This was not how this was supposed to go down! Not at all! But no, some random bitch just happened to show up!” Nathan rambled a bit, his hand shaking a bit, but keeping the gun traced on Max. Of course, though, Nathan would blame Max for Chloe being shot. While Chloe writhed in agony, she could feel as though she was about to be next.

“Go to hell, Nathan.” Max said, venom dripping in her voice as potently as anything in the wild. She was prepared to go to hell, herself. She didn’t even feel the need to close her eyes, or anything of that nature. Rather she stared at Nathan, her eyes piercing through his very soul.

“Don’t you fucking mouth off to me, or you’ll end up like her!” Nathan yelled, not liking the attitude that Max was giving him. He aimed his gun at Chloe for a moment, as the girl groaned and writher in agony. Then it happened, the door to the girl’s room slammed open.

“What was that noise…?!” David Madsen said, as the head of security entered the bathroom. For a moment, he could only stand there. He saw his stepdaughter writing on the ground in agony, and Nathan Prescott, of course, brandishing a handgun at Max Caulfield. Max charged forward as Nathan put his attention to the new entry to this hellhole like bathroom. She didn’t get very far, however, as the gun went off again. This time it struck Max in the shoulder, sending her onto the ground.

The pain made her livider than she had been before. She felt it go through her, however, nice and clean. The bullet must have ripped right through her muscles, and after a moment or two she could feel the pain right next to the warm flowing blood.

David tackled down Nathan, the gun clattering to the floor. Max, still in pain, used all of her force of will to pull out her phone and quickly dial 911. Even if Nathan was subdued by David, there would need to be a hospital involved to make sure Chloe didn’t bleed out. Max would also need medical attention to assess the damage to her own shoulder.

Through small gasps of pain, Max managed to tell the 911 operator what had happened. And luckily, the operator said a responder would be there as quickly as possible. That’s when Max noticed it. The light was pouring in through the windows. She could feel her mind slipping away due to the rewind.

David had knocked Nathan unconscious, and was on the floor next to Chloe, making sure she was okay. Max smiled a little bit. Maybe David was capable of change and being kind. She would have to wait and see, if she survived this. David, on the other hand, turned his attention to Max for a moment, the two staring at each other from opposite sides of the bathroom.

“D… Don’t worry. I called 911 already. They’re… they’re on their…” Max could feel herself being pulled away. It was almost time. It felt like dying though. She could barely hear David yelling something to her, as Max’s mind faded away from the current time.

* * *

Max could see the timeline changing before her eyes. A new evolution of her power perhaps? The timeline took on the form of photographs, burning in front of her, and being replaced with something else. Watching as Nathan was arrested. Watching as she and Chloe were rushed to the hospital. But then the light was brightened again, as she opened her eyes.

There was a sharp pain as she moved her arm in a wrong way. She was sitting in a hospital room, similar to the one that she had been in with Kate on the previous timeline’s Thursday. Before her, however, laid Chloe Price. Three balloons were tied to the hospital bed, each with a distinct “Get Well Soon!” design emblazoned on it. Several stuffed animals were strewn about her bed as well, more gifts from people who probably didn’t know her. Well to be fair, Max didn’t know this Chloe either. But she was there.

Max’s arm laid in a sling, and she could feel the area where her shoulder was stitched up and bandaged. Looks like she survived, after all. She wanted to break down and cry there, but she refrained for the moment. A calendar was set up on the wall. Friday. She returned to this point in time, of course she did. But there was no storm. Not a single sign of it. As she looked at the calendar and placed her hand on it, the door opened.

“You’re visiting, Max? I thought you’d be out since you were discharged.” A familiar voice said. The brunette turned her attention to see Joyce standing there. Max could only give a silent nod, not knowing what had transpired since now and when she had been shot.

“Yeah…” Max looked down, guilty as ever. Joyce walked over to her.

“We’ve been over this, Max. What happened in that bathroom was not your fault.” Joyce began saying, putting her hand on Max’s non-injured shoulder. “You tried your best to stop him, but… he got both of you pretty bad. I’m glad you’re here for Chloe though, even though you should be back home resting.”

Max took it all in, looking down and avoiding eye contact. Oh, she felt guilty. Guiltier than she ever had been. 

“Yeah… I feel like I could have done better though.” Max said rather critically of herself. “Chloe wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for me.”

“Enough of that talk, Max! That’s not gonna help anyone, especially not you.” Joyce said. She always saw Max as another member of her family. “You and Chloe were the victims here.”

“But I could have stopped him… I could have.” Max mumbled to herself, looking over to Chloe’s breathing, yet immobile body. Max walked over to Chloe’s side and sat down in the chair next to her bed.

“Max…” Joyce sighed. Max was unconscious for several days, the reason even baffling doctors. Max didn’t sustain enough of an injury to be unconscious, yet she was. And now, the poor girl looked like she had gone through a war. Even though her parents wanted to pull her out of Blackwell, Max didn’t want to leave Chloe’s side. Not yet. Joyce could only think of how sad it was that their reunion was like this.

“I’m sorry Joyce.” Max could only muster to say. She put her free hand onto Chloe’s and squeezed it. “I’m sorry I wasn’t there. I’m sorry I abandoned Chloe. But now… not anymore. Not when she really needs me.”

Joyce only sighed in sadness as she looked at Max. She looked so upset with herself.

Max did feel shame for all of this. Everything that had occurred, it was Max’s fault. Fuck Arcadia Bay. She should have let the storm smash into it. Then Chloe would have been okay. All of this was a mistake. But Max could feel the ripples in time. If she made another major change to the timeline, she wasn’t sure if she would survive it. If anyone would. Joyce smiled for a moment and sat down next to Max.

The two sat there, making small talk, Max knowing everything already but playing along to not let anyone know about her own past mistakes. Eventually, however, Joyce was called away, off to business at the diner. She bid Max goodbye for now, as Max turned her head to Chloe. She got up and looked at the sleeping punk.

“I won’t let you down, this time, Chloe. I won’t.” The brunette said to the comatose girl, leaning over and kissing her on the forehead where no one would see. “I’ll be here for you always. No matter what.”


	2. Another Morning

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kate visits Max in her room.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow putting out two chapters in two days? I must be out of my mind! Anyways, here's another chapter please enjoy <3

Max had tried to spend the rest of her weekend in the hospital visiting the unconscious Chloe. There were no visible signs of improvement, so Max just had to hope that Chloe would come out of this sometime soon. The photography student had also learned that the mastermind behind the Dark Room had been unceremoniously thrown under the bus by Nathan almost immediately after he was arrested. Apparently, the police raided the Dark Room and Jefferson was there trying to get rid of as much evidence as possible. Good luck with that shit-fuck.

Max, on the other hand, spent time in the Arcadia Bay police station describing the shooting. It was incredibly uncomfortable to tell others about what had happened. Luckily, Max was the victim here and not the perpetrator. With two victims, and a third witness in David, there was no way Nathan would be able to buy his way out of this one. Luckily, they didn’t see any reason to question her about Jefferson, outside of some menial questions about if she had noticed anything about him. Max, with a heavy heart, replied “no.” She couldn’t have anyone know about her powers or the fact that she had known Jefferson was responsible for all of this.

Max had not even bothered to look at the multitude of texts sent her way, some from people she didn’t even know. These were people who were artificial to her now that she was in this timeline. They weren’t the people she knew and grew closer to over the past few days. She felt bad for thinking this way, but she was also prepared to sacrifice them all to the tornado. Then Monday morning rolled around, and by god, Max was not looking forward to returning to school at all.

Max had awoken from her sleep several times in the night, suffering from nightmares. They weren’t as bad as the one she had on that fateful Friday, but they were still enough to make her wake up in a body covered in sweat. It was definitely not her favorite. Especially not when Nathan and Jefferson were involved. As the sun shined in through her window, Max’s eyes slowly reopened for the last time of that sleep. She was tired as hell, but today she returned to school. Her parents had fought with her to take back to Seattle, but Max had insisted that she stay in Blackwell. Her reasoning was that this was still the opportunity of a lifetime, and the scholarship was still in effect.

Mark Jefferson was long gone though, and for the time being her Language of Photography class had been cancelled. So that along with English AP meant she had even less classes to take. Slowly, but surely, she got out of bed. She was just so tired of everything. Her shoulder would take weeks to heal, and that was definitely annoying her. At least she had a sling. But at the same time, she couldn’t do what she loved to do; take photographs.

Over the weekend, she had learned how to change the bandages on her shoulders as well, so that was another thing that was painful to do. She lazily put her arm into its sling, before looking at herself in the mirror sitting next to her bed.

“God Max, you look so tired. And old. It’s like you’ve lived a thousand lifetimes in a single week.” Max said to herself, looking at the mirror. She walked over to her desk, grabbing a pen, and heading over to her school schedule. She happily crossed off Language of Photography and Photography Lab from the schedule, this time in a thick black marker. The less she had to think about Jefferson or Nathan the better. That’s when she fell into her seat at the desk and opened up her emails. A couple of emails to go along with her texts, but one of them was from Principal Wells. Oh gee, Max thought to herself, how delightful.

The email was a mostly expected email, apologizing for what had happened in his school and how he wanted to talk to her later on Monday to talk about what had happened, along with some other things. Great, Max thought, just what she needed. Principal Wells was not her favorite person in the world, having covered up a variety of the problems Nathan had done in exchange for more funding from Sean Prescott.

Max decided to search up the Prescotts to see what else had happened to the magnate. And it was surprisingly evil to read with Sean throwing his own son under the bus for what had happened and insisted he didn’t know what his son was doing with the converted Dark Room that Sean had had paid for. Why was she not surprised the world’s worst dad would do this? What an utterly despicable human being. As much as she hated Nathan, she had to admit, there would be nothing worse than being thrown under the bus by your own parents.

Then came the next article, which made her sick to her stomach. Rachel Amber’s body had been found. This was something she expected to happen, especially if investigators had looked in her file from the Dark Room. It was a terribly sad article to read, but Max could only think about Chloe. How she’d find out once she woke up. It was not going to be fun to experience that all over again. Sick to her stomach, already, Max closed out her computer and sat there. How the hell was she supposed to return to a normal life?

Her stupor was broken by a knock on the door, which caused Max to instinctively get up and head to it. As she cracked open the door, she saw Kate.

“H… Hey Max?” Kate asked, looking through the crack of the door. The artist girl was standing there, already dressed, while Max was still in her nightwear.

“Oh… Hey Kate, what’s going on?” Max asked, putting on her brave face.

“I just… I just wanted to see how you were. May I come in?” Kate asked, wandering into her room after Max nodded and the closed the door again. “You never answered my texts, so I got a little bit worried.”

“I’m sorry, Kate. I’ve just had a very crazy weekend between waking up and having to be interviewed by the police… It just never really occurred to me to answer anyone. I’m sorry, Kate.”

“It’s alright, Max. I know how you feel. About the police and all too…” Kate said, looking down a bit, and sitting down onto Max’s bed. “I just felt the need to talk to you about all what happened.” Kate took a few deep breaths, trying to keep calm, but Max knew where this was going. “I was going to talk to you about it last week, but then everything happened in the bathroom. They said you were in a coma too for a few days, so I was scared and praying for you.”

“Thank you, Kate.” Max smiled a little bit. “That means a lot to me.” Kate nodded to her, before looking down.

“A while ago, I went to a Vortex Club party. I just wanted to meet new people… but apparently that’s not what was in store for me.”

“What happened, Kate?”

“I don’t really remember what happened that night, but the police put together all the evidence when they talked to me to let me know what had happened.” Kate was visibly shaking, and Max put her good hand onto Kate’s shoulder and pulled her into a hug.

“You don’t have to tell me anything you don’t want to, Kate.” Max said, rubbing Kate’s back a little bit.

“I…It’s okay, Max. I need to talk to someone about it… because Nathan and Jefferson kidnapped me… The police asked me so many questions and I didn’t have any answers to them. I shouldn’t have had any alcohol that night, but I did! And that’s how they got to me. I should have never trusted Nathan to take me anywhere in the first place.”

“I’m… I’m so sorry, Kate. Those two bastards deserve to rot in hell for eternity.” Max said, visibly angry. Even Kate was able to notice every drip of venom in Max’s speech.

“I just… I felt so violated after all of this, and I didn’t even know it happened.” Kate sniffled a little but prevented herself from crying. “And then it got worse after Nathan hurt you. “I was afraid you might have died…”

“I’m here Kate. Alive and well. And I’m just glad you’re here too.” Max said, giving the girl renewed hope in herself.

“T… Thank you, Max.” She leaned in for another hug, which Max gladly gave to the girl. She definitely needed the support now more than ever. “I’m just glad Victoria took down that video of me at the party after Nathan drugged me. That’s the one good thing that came out of Victoria…”

“She took video of you at that party?”

“Yeah… The video started to go around, but it was taken down really quickly after word spread about Nathan. The video is apparently important evidence for the police to get Jefferson and Nathan, so that’s something…” Kate trailed off, visibly shaken by having to relive those moments. She took a deep breath and looked to Max. “What about you? Are you okay, Max?”

“W… What do you mean?” Max tilted her head.

“You look so tired, Max.” Kate said rather bluntly. “More tired than even I was. Are you sure you’re okay? Nathan… Nathan shot you, Max. But you look like you’ve had more damage than that.”

Max simply smiled and shook her head.

“Just didn’t sleep well at all.” Max looked down to avoid eye contact with her religious friend.

“I know the feeling.” Kate said, looking down as well. “I’ve been having strange dreams since last week, and it’s been making for some rough nights.”

“What kind of dreams Kate?”

“Weird ones… they feel like memories, but they’re obviously not memories… I don’t really remember them that well outside of one.”

“And what’s that, Kate?”

“A storm. A big storm hitting Arcadia Bay, and then I just wake up.”

“…”

“Are you okay, Max?” Kate tilted her head a little, obviously wanting her to be alright.

“Oh, it’s nothing, Kate. I’m sorry you’re having bad dreams like that. They must be scary, especially if they’re really vivid.” Max said, visibly shaken. Despite that, Kate didn’t press any further.

“They are pretty bad. In most of them, I see it coming in from a hospital room. And then the storm hits, and I wake up. It gives me a headache just thinking about it.” Kate said, sighing a little bit and looking over to Max. “Sorry if I dropped too much on you, Max. I just… I just needed someone to vent to about all of this. A friend who would listen.”

Max smiled once more.

“Of course, Kate. I’m always here to support and hear what you have to say. What are friends for?” Max said, hiding behind her brave face once more. She wasn’t gonna let this get her down, nope. She was going to be a strong friend for Kate.

“Thank you, Max. It really does mean the world to me.” Kate hugged Max one final time, and quickly broke free. “Thank you for talking to me, Max.”

“It’s no problem at all Kate, although I should probably head to the showers. I haven’t taken one since I woke up, and I smell like hell.”

“Oh, okay Max!” Kate got up from the bed, and smiled to Max. She looked so much better, even though the same events had occurred. Maybe there wasn’t as much bullying since she was just another victim of the two evil men. As Kate left, Max sighed and got up from her bed as well. She headed over to her closet and grabbed her bag for the shower and headed out. Why was Kate dreaming about the previous timeline? Was the storm still coming? No, it couldn’t be. It was past Friday already, and that was obviously from when Kate was still in the hospital.

Max was lost in thought as she exited her room and made way for the bathroom. It was going to be a long day, wasn’t it?


	3. The Awakening of the Storm

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chloe has a strange dream.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one's a bit shorter, but it has what I wanted to write in it. Hope you all enjoy, I really have been enjoying writing these daily!

The rest of the week went almost as normal. Max went to her classes, few as they were, and robotically went through the motions. The oddest thing was that she hadn’t seen Victoria in almost the entire week. Not a single sign of her, except in the morning. She wasn’t attending classes. Made sense, after all this version of Victoria was still close with Nathan. The fact that she and him were close, and then he nearly murders two people in the bathroom is probably doing something to her. Max couldn’t help but feel bad for her, especially since she remembered she was one of Jefferson’s next targets.

Her meeting with Principal Wells was as agonizing as she believed it would be. Lots of apologies about how Wells should have seen this coming, and the bullshit like that. Max could appreciate the effort at the very least, and it looks like Wells is working with David to up the security at the school. It made sense, since the shooting was definitely enough to upset the school boars especially. The fact that their star student turned out to be the opposite of what Wells painted him as had made them second guess themselves. At least she had the go ahead to visit Chloe during the schooldays if she so pleased. It was good enough for her, getting to see her Chloe when she needed to.

Friday morning came, and Max, as per usual, went through her morning ritual of taking a shower and, on autopilot, heading to her room. Victoria, for the first time all week, was hanging outside her room staring down Max with a deadly glare. As if it were her fault that Nathan decided to bring a gun to school. Max shot back with own glare, one full of poison and anger. It was enough to make Victoria head back into her dorm room, as Max went back into her own to change into her clothes for the day.

Changing into her clothes was a challenge every morning. She didn’t want to upset her shoulder any more than she needed to. Slowly, but surely, she put on her usual attire. A magenta colored Jane Doe T-Shirt just seemed right somehow. It was Chloe’s favorite, so she always hoped it would help her when she felt especially depressed. And today was one of those especially bad days. She didn’t even want to get out of bed, let alone get ready for the day. However, she had to visit Chloe again. With all the work she missed in the previous week following the shooting, she had a lot to make up on. So today, Max thought, she would take herself to visit Chloe.

Yeah, that’s what she would do.

* * *

Chloe wasn’t sure where she was. Everything was dark around her, and she was unable to make anything out.

“H… Hello?” Chloe called out into the void. Nothing. Nothing at all. “W…Where the fuck am I?”

She questioned herself like that several times as she walked through the pitch black darkness. There was no end in sight, as she made her way around.

“What the fuck is this place? D… Did I fucking die?” Chloe remembered being shot in the stomach by Nathan and for a moment she could have sworn Max was in there too. Max Caulfield. Her old best friend who left her as soon as her dad died. And of course, she was there to try and stop Nathan. What are the fucking chances of that happening? And then… Nathan shot Max too. “Oh fuck, that bastard! He fucking shot Max!?” That was all she remembered before tumbling into the darkness.

“Fuck, is she okay? Or is she dead too? Damn it, I see her for the first time in five years and that’s how it all goes down!?” Chloe was yelling at herself, her voice echoing in the dark as if it were a large chamber. “I’m dead. Max is probably dead. All so what? I could blackmail that jackass?” Chloe kicked the pitch black floor hard, and like a puddle of water there was a ripple.

The ripple went out more and more, causing the black darkness to become something else. It became the lighthouse. But something was off. Her hair was blowing in the wind, and there was a giant tornado heading towards the town.

“W…What the fuck?!” Chloe yelled; her voice covered up by the immense storm that was heading for Arcadia Bay. As much as she hated Arcadia Bay, claiming she wanted it all to go to hell, she never actually wanted that to happen. She looked around at her surroundings and saw the older Max unconscious on the ground next to her. Max looked so much older than the last time they had seen one another, and the brunette girl looked so beat up. Chloe looked her once over, seeing that she was bleeding from the nose. Her wrists looked sore, as if they had been tied up with rope or something. What the hell was going on?

“Hey… Max, wake up.” Chloe said, shaking Max a bit. The brunette didn’t move. She was breathing, but she wasn’t waking up, even with the giant ass storm about to ruin the town. Chloe really didn’t know what to do. Was this the afterlife? Was this what waited on the other side, or was it something else? Chloe wasn’t the least bit religious, but she knew this wasn’t heaven nor hell. It seemed real, but also not an experience she had at the same time.

She sighed a little bit and shook Max again, trying her damn best to wake her up. Five years… Where does the time go? Max left, and now she’s back? What even was going on? All of this was really confusing.

Max was her best friend. But then she left. No real contact for over five years, but seeing her stupid face in that bathroom… trying to save her from Nathan? Chloe could never thank Max enough for trying to do that. But at the same time, she felt hollow inside. As if a chunk of her were missing. And for whatever reason, that Chloe couldn’t explain, Max seemed to be the answer to that hollowness. Now only if she would wake up… She sighed, getting over one last time.

“Max, wake up.” Chloe demanded, with a stern tone in her voice. She needed someone to explain what was going on and this was definitely not helping see her old friend bleeding out the nose.

Max’s eyes shot open.

They were pitch black.

Chloe could see herself reflected in those shining black eyes.

And Max wailed.

* * *

The day went by rather fast, as Max had made her way to the hospital and up to Chloe’s room. No Joyce or David today, which left Max alone with the girl she loved… The girl who would never know what they had gone through together. Sighing, Max sat there in her chair next to Chloe’s bed. She leaned forward and squeezed her hand, hoping for any sort of reply. She expected nothing to happen, but then the unexpected happened.

Chloe’s eyes went wide open, and the heart rate monitor spiked. Max didn’t miss a beat as she got up to immediately alert a doctor that Chloe had awoken from her coma.

The blue haired girl was in pain at the very least. Where was she? Everything was white now instead of dark. Was she… alive? That had to be it, she had to be alive. Thank fuck for that, Chloe thought. The door to her room opened, as the doctor entered. For a moment, though, she saw Max outside as the doctor entered, leaving her behind outside the room. Chloe felt a sigh of relief. She was okay. She was alive. At the very least, they could have awkward conversations now. But right now, Chloe’s attention was to the doctor. This would not be fun.

* * *

Max sat outside the door waiting to see Chloe for what seemed like hours. It wasn’t that long, but she definitely felt as though this was purposefully taking too long. But she was in there. Awake. Max could only hope things would be okay. David and Joyce had arrived after Max had alerted them Chloe had woken up. It felt like a family. David had saved her twice, and even though they had their problems, she couldn’t help but thank David for his paranoia with security. It saved her twice.

The doctor eventually allowed the three of them to come in. It was a reunion for the ages, that was for sure.

Joyce wanted to practically wrap her arms around her daughter, only to remember her daughter had been shot.

Chloe, for once in her life, couldn’t think of anything to yell at David. Sure, I’m sure that they’d argue and fight in the future just like always, for now there was peace between the two. But for the moment, things were at peace, with Chloe and David talking slowly to each other about what had happened while Joyce listened in. Max listened in as well, being filled in on all the things she had missed since her powers had ripped her out of her body after she had been shot.

According to David, Chloe surviving was little bit sure of a miracle. She was apparently in surgery for quite some time, as all the damage to her insides were repaired by the doctors. It was definitely a miracle that Chloe survived the shooting, even if Max didn’t really understand the medical stuff that David was rattling off while he spoke to Chloe.

“Thanks.” Chloe managed to squeak out to David. Her entire body felt rather sore. Then her eyes laid on Max, with the guiltiest face she had ever seen. Chloe frowned a little bit, wondering why Max would be so guilty looking. Maybe she felt guilt for Chloe’s current state, but Chloe didn’t accept that. Max got fucking shot too, and that bastard Nathan was to blame for all of this. Max didn’t say much, allowing David and Joyce to spend time with Chloe. Max just waited for her own turn, knowing that Joyce deserved the first waking moments with Chloe.

After a while, though, the doctor came in and told the trio it was time to leave so he could check in with Chloe. Max frowned, knowing that she wouldn’t get any time with Chloe today, but the blunette seemingly sensed this. As Max walked out the door, she could hear Chloe’s voice coming from behind her.

“Don’t worry, Max. We can talk later, kay?”

Max smiled a bit. That was her Chloe.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Max and Chloe will finally talk in the next chapter! Angst to ensue!


	4. A Talk

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Max and Chloe have a talk. Things don't go as planned.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yet another chapter. This one longer by like 300 words, but whatever. I enjoy writing this fic, and hopefully you all enjoy reading it! Please leave comments if you enjoyed this fic, because I definitely want to hear your thoughts on it!

Max had waited until the following day to go visit Chloe. She wanted to be alone with the girl, and the two would obviously have a lot to talk about. It was an agonizingly long wait, Max thought to herself. She knew this was a different Chloe. One who couldn’t know about what had happened, but at the same time she just wanted to collapse into Chloe’s arms and be with her. Of course, the latter would never happen. For now, just seeing Chloe was enough. So once more, she was on her way to the hospital again. She made sure to check to see if David or Joyce would be there, but luckily Joyce had work and David was working on some project.

The bus ride to the hospital was as long as ever, the sound of music piping into Max’s ears from her headphones. As she closed her eyes for a moment, to take in a moment of solitude on the somewhat crowded bus, she saw the storm. For just a split second, she saw that dreaded storm heading back towards Arcadia Bay. Only for that moment though. It was like a flash more than any of her other visions. But it made her shudder. Was the storm really gone? Or was it just staved off for the moment?

She didn’t want to think about it any longer, and simply focused in on her music until the bus made it to her stop. When it did, she exited it and made her way towards the hospital. It was not too long of a walk from the bus stop, but she had more and more time to think and that was the last thing she needed. Max already tended to overthink things, and this was definitely not helping if she was going to visit Chloe.

The doors to the hospital opened up before her as she stepped into the cold, death-feeling building. She made her way to the elevator, which would take her up to Chloe’s floor. There weren’t too many people there, and Max was able to do a few deep breathing exercises on her way up to keep her anxiety down. The last thing she needed was for Chloe to freak out on her and Max to react badly to everything.

Each step seemed like a mile as she approached Chloe’s room. Hopefully things wouldn’t be painfully awkward, and things would possibly go well for them. Maybe even get through a whole conversation without any yelling or crying. That was the optimal scenario, and Max really hoped it would go that way.

And she entered.

The sterile clean environment and Chloe Price didn’t seem to mesh well, but it’s not like Chloe could be discharged from the hospital yet. So, she was stuck here, sitting in bed, absentmindedly sitting there as if she were waiting for Max. She looked a little annoyed.

“Finally, I was waiting for you to show up.” Chloe said, as if Max were late for an appointment.

“Sorry, sorry, the bus took a while to get to the stop.” Max replied, walking over to the chair she usually sat in. She scooched up towards the bed and looked at Chloe.

“Buses usually do.” Chloe said, as she looked over to the brunette. She smiled for a moment as she saw Max’s wound. “Look at you though, jumping in to save me. That… That really meant a lot, even if you didn’t stop him from shooting me.”

“Yeah… I wish…” Max trailed off for a moment. “I wish there were something else I could have done to stop him, but all I could think about what jumping out to stop him.”

“Huh. I’m surprised he didn’t know you were there, to be honest.” Chloe said, leaning back a bit. “I read everything that shithead and his teacher were up to. Everything…” Chloe wrapped her knuckles into fists. “They killed her…”

“You mean… Rachel Amber?” Max knew. Of course, she knew. She found the body with Chloe.

Chloe nodded, and bit her lip. She was so angry, she couldn’t even cry. The blue haired punk was simply filled with rage. She was literally quivering from the absolute vindictive rage in her system.

“I wanna kill him. I wanna take everything away from him, just like he tried to do to me!” Chloe said, looking at Max. Max leaned over, and absentmindedly put her hand over Chloe’s. It was only for a split moment, however, before Max retracted her hand. Not yet. It was not the time for that. And Chloe was angry, so Max knew this could easily turn ugly for her.

“He’s gonna get what’s coming to him, Chloe. He and Jefferson were both arrested for what they were doing.”

“Fuck it, a little time in jail won’t change anything for them. They’ll get off scot free I bet, just like every other rich fuck who commits a crime.” Chloe said, having noticed Max’s hand. She wasn’t sure what to make of it, but at the moment she didn’t really care to comment. She sighed heavily, trying to calm herself down. First time she had a real talk with Max in years, after getting her shot, and she’s raging. “So, what exactly happened? How the hell did you end up in that bathroom”

“Well…” Max stopped for a moment and bit her lip. She couldn’t say the truth, so she gave her a half truth. “I got out of class, and after making a total embarrassment of myself I needed to go wash my face.”

“Pfft. Typical Max Caulfield. Five years later, and you haven’t changed a bit. So, I’m guessing you hid when Nathan came in?” Chloe said, rolling her eyes a little bit. “Still though, serious guts to jump out at a guy with a gun. I was too busy rolling over with pain to really notice.”

“I… I… I could have done something else probably, but in the moment, I could only send myself flying at him. I was thinking ‘I couldn’t let Chloe get hurt by this fuck.’” Max explained.

“Ahhh I see I see. So, you recognized me huh? Even with the whole new hair style and color?” Chloe asked, tilting her head a little bit. Max loved the inquisitive look on Chloe’s face and blushed a little at seeing it again.

“Y… Yeah. Of course, I knew it was you right away. Your voice… your face… I could never forget you, Chloe.” Max said, sounding as sincere as she usually did. Of course, Chloe just rolled her eyes again. Chloe knew this probably wasn’t the best time to argue with Max, but she knew it would bother her, so she needed to bring it up. Better now than later.

“Oh yeah. Sure. Just casually forgot to call. Or text. Or write. For five fucking years.” Each word was filled with hurt and venom, and each one pierced Max’s heart like a poison-tipped arrow. Each one striking with such precision to make Max’s barriers break down. It hurt like hell to be called out like that, but it was true. She simply just put her head down and looked guilty.

“I’m sorry Chloe.” Max said, her voice quiet and tired.

“Are you really? Or are you just saying that because you feel guilty?”

“I’m not gonna make excuses Chloe. After we moved, I felt like the world’s shittiest friend. For leaving you when you needed me the most.” Max sighed and put her hand over Chloe’s again. She let it linger before she retracted it again. Max didn’t mention it. Neither did Chloe.

“So why the fuck didn’t you message me? Why did you just… abandon me…?” Chloe looked down. She was seeking answers, and they were ones Max couldn’t answer. “How can you, with a straight face, say you couldn’t forget me when you clearly did?!”

Max didn’t reply. She just curled up a bit. Her legs, which were planted on the floor, slowly curled up into her chest.

“I’m not stupid Max, even if I was kicked out of school. I still think I’m pretty fucking smart. And I can tell when someone is bullshitting me.” Chloe said, looking at Max and seeing right into her eyes. “So, what aren’t you telling me, huh? You said what you said with a whole lotta confidence! You can’t just walk into my life like this and tell me that you couldn’t forget me! You just can’t!”

“I was a bad friend… I didn’t think you’d ever want to talk or see me again. When I came back to Arcadia Bay…”

“And that’s another thing! One whole month without even a fucking hello? What the fuck, Max? You just couldn’t bother to say hi to me once? Not even come visit me? We had to meet by complete accident in that fucking bathroom?”

Max bit her lip. She just wanted to fall apart then and there.

“You’re not a good liar, Max. I know you better than that.” Chloe said, rather bluntly and with a lot of confidence in her guess. “So, tell me the truth. What are you keeping from me? Why were you really in the bathroom that day?”

“I… I… I can’t tell you why…” Max said, curling up tighter on the chair.

“Why not? Don’t I deserve that much?” Chloe crossed her arms a bit in the bed, looking down Max.

“You do…! I just… There’s so much going on, I just… I just can’t!” Max replied, feeling her anxiety spiking up and down.

“What’s going on, Max? Tell me, please, so I can figure this all out!” Chloe replied. She didn’t like Max keeping secrets. She deserved to know the truth.

“I just… It’s for your own good, Chloe… Because I love you…”

“… What?”

“I…” Max let that slip out. Shit, Max thought to herself. Shit, shit, shit. She was gonna start having a full blown anxiety attack. Chloe couldn’t process it either. She heard that right, right? It sounded like a genuine “I love you” from someone she hadn’t seen in literal years. And it was pissing her off. It pissed her off so much, and she pointed to the door.

“Just… Just fucking get out, Max. I don’t wanna see you right now.”

“B… But Chloe!”

“I said, out, Max! I don’t wanna see you!” Chloe replied, angrier. Max just got up and shook her head a bit.

“I’m sorry Chloe. But… I’m not going anywhere.” Max was breathing heavily in and out, having a full blown anxiety attack. It felt like her entire body was reacting to this whole situation. Hopefully she had enough in her. She held up her good hand and rewound time. Just a few moments into the past.

Her head was burning with pain as she did it. She hadn’t rewound at all since she entered the new timeline, and her head was getting used to being in a single time period, not this. Time seemed to rewind slower than usual, with the feeling of blood coming out of her nose evident.

“What’s going on, Max? Tell me, please, so I can figure this all out!” Chloe replied. She didn’t like Max keeping secrets. She deserved to know the truth. “… Max, are you okay? How’d you get there… Max?”

Max stood there, her arm flopping against her side. Her head was pounding, as if someone were playing the drums inside her head. It blasted against her, and she couldn’t figure out why the pain was so intense this time… Maybe she shouldn’t have used her powers while having an anxiety attack, it probably wasn’t the best time to have used it.

Blood trickled from her nose onto the floor, and Max simply put her hand up to her bleeding nose and looked at it for a moment. She stared at Chloe, until everything went black and she fell to the floor.

“Max!!!” Chloe leaned over to see Max, unconscious, laying on the floor. Fuck, Chloe thought, maybe she shouldn’t have pushed all these questions onto her like that! Now she was panicking. She immediately yelled for someone, and a doctor came into some alarm to collect Max. He had Max taken somewhere else while asking Chloe what had happened. “I don’t know! She just got up from her chair, her nose started bleeding, and she collapsed!”

The doctor left, leaving Chloe alone in the room. Fuck, Chloe thought to herself. Maybe she should have saved her rant for another day instead of doing right when Max had come back. She was impulsive like that, but at the same time, Max didn’t seem angry. She seemed more sad, depressed, anxious, and scared more than anything. Hopefully she’d be okay, Chloe thought, so that she could apologize for doing that.

“Please let her be okay.”

* * *

“Where am I?” Max asked herself, waking up in the bathroom once more. Here? No, why here, she thought to herself. She slowly moved herself out from behind the stalls and saw Nathan shooting Chloe. No! She had to stop him!

The vision quickly changed. This time they were in the junkyard. Max was standing next to Chloe, as she shot the rim of the junky vehicle, and the bullet rammed itself into her gut. She fell over, bleeding.

“No! Not this! Anything but this!”

The vision once more changed. Chloe got hit by the train. Max couldn’t do anything to stop it.

It changed. She was sitting in the room with Chloe, hooked up to the ventilator. She was not breathing anymore. Max wanted to weep and cry.

Then it changed again. To the horrid graveyard that was the dump in the middle of the night. She could see Jefferson coming towards her as Chloe laid on the ground dead. She curled up onto the ground and simply wept. She didn’t want to see all of this. Was this what she got? Is this her punishment for changing the timeline? She didn't know why she was being tortured with all of Chloe's deaths, but she they looped. And looped. And looped. All on repeat.

* * *

"Oh Max..." Joyce said looking down at the unconscious girl. She must have collapsed after that anxiety attack Chloe had mentioned. The waitress looked outside the window, and was astounded as she looked out it. It was the middle of the fall and it was still quite warm out, yet... there was snow.

* * *

A wall of photographs. Each one was lined up across the wall. All of them of Chloe and Max, from their youth, to their adulthood. All of them happy that they were together. A hand reached out, knife in hand, and scratched out Max's face in each one. On the desk across from them... a red binder.


	5. What Comes After

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chloe realizes her dreams are more than that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the delay! As always I hope you enjoy this fic, and comments are very much appreciated!

When Chloe woke up the next morning, she could only think about what had happened the previous day. The previous day was full of negative energy and Max fainting did not do well for Chloe’s already miserable attitude. The pain in her stomach was not as bad as before, but it was still there. She just wished the painful process of recovery would be over now. Why? Mostly so she could go in and check on Max. She had no idea what had happened to her old friend, and now it was worrying her. She half expected Max to be there when she woke up. But unfortunately, she was not there.

Chloe sighed a bit, wondering what time it was. She looked at the clock and it was only eight in the morning. Of course, Chloe would wake up that early when she had nothing better to do but lay there and wait for her wound to heal. Hell, she wished Max was here just to alleviate the boredom of sitting here alone. She groaned a bit as she moved a bit, hoping for the day when she could begin walking again. So, she got herself comfortable once again, and closed her eyes. It only took a few moments for her to fall back asleep.

* * *

Chloe dreamed again. This time it was Max and Chloe at American Rust, where Max and Chloe were simply playing around with a gun. Chloe, personally, would have liked to have a gun to shoot Nathan in his stupid stomach with, and this seemed to be a dream of her practicing. Or was it? It didn’t seem to make much sense. Max was laughing and having an enjoyable time as Chloe fired the gun at a group of bottles that were set up in front of her. She wondered why she was having this dream…

If Chloe was being honest, it felt less like a dream and more like a memory that was long forgotten. She had a hard time piecing it together. But when Chloe handed Max the gun, Max fell over. She was bleeding from the nose. Again. Just like when she fell over in the first dream she had. Like when she fell in the hospital room. It made Chloe feel an odd sadness, one that was very personal to her. She wasn’t sure, however, what to make of it. It just didn’t make sense.

Why was Max always bleeding from her nose? Why did she always collapse right after? None of it made sense to Chloe, as she watched on from a different point of view. Dream Chloe grabbed Max and shook her, yelling her name as Max fell unconscious. Chloe couldn’t hear what the dream versions of herself and Max were saying, but she did hear Chloe scream out Max’s name. 

American Rust… it was like a second home to Chloe. But then she found out Rachel was buried there. Why would she ever go back? But at the same time, she felt all these feelings about it. Hanging around there with Max, when she never had done so before.

The dream continued and moved on, quickly moving like someone pressing fast forward on a VHS tape. The fuzziness kept on going and Chloe ran after her dream counterpart to the railroad tracks. She and Max were walking along them, their hands touching. Why… Why did that feel so right? Why did it feel like that? Chloe could feel the tingling on her fingertips.

“I’m so glad you’re my partner in crime.”

“As long as you’re my partner in time!”

Those works struck a chord with Chloe as things slowed down again. It made her heart hurt bad. Max and Chloe were not that close. But at the same time, it felt like they were kids again. Purely loving one another unconditionally and having fun for once in her life that didn’t involve the pain of someone leaving her alone. Her dad… Max… Rachel… Each one was taken from her unfairly. It wasn’t fair.

Chloe watched as this dream version of her and Max had a personal moment together. Suddenly she remembered something. Something odd. Max had saved her from being hit by a train, didn’t she? The dream continued on, and likely enough, a train barreled through. Max seemed to know right where to go to. She went inside the little shed next to the railroad tracks and came down to literally change the direction of the train to avoid hitting Chloe.

“Holy shit.” Chloe muttered, not believing what had happened. This wasn’t a dream, though. This was a memory. A memory long forgotten by Chloe, but it just came back to her now. Max had saved her life more than once. More than just the bathroom. But what did it all mean? Chloe didn’t get to figure it out as she soon found herself waking up from her dream.

* * *

Chloe woke up from her dream, remembering every single moment of it. She could only think to herself “what the fuck” over and over again. How could any of that even happened? She never went there with Max, yet she knew she had gone there with her. She had to talk to Max. She had to. But as long as Max was unconscious, there would be no answers. The blue haired girl sighed a little bit as she looked across the empty room and started forlornly at it.

“Max… What the hell is going on?” Chloe asked herself.

* * *

A week passed. Chloe began to try walking again, with the help of her physical therapists. She was walking, albeit slowly, and as a result was able to visit the unconscious Max. The only sign of life was that sometimes she bled from the nose, but that was it other than the subtle breathing that was always ongoing. She needed help from a walker, but it was alright. Soon enough she would be able to walk around on her own, without the walker. But for now, Max was what was on her mind.

Every night she had that same dream, of Max and Chloe in the junkyard and on the train tracks. It was something so similar that Chloe began journaling about it just to keep herself from going insane. Every time she woke up, she would write down specific things she would remember from the dream. Eventually, she created an entire timeline of what had happened in the junkyard from start to finish. It was quite the work, Chloe thought to herself. She was proud of it. She remembered when Max had left, she would write letters to Max. Ones she’d never send. All in a journal.

Chloe wondered when Max would wake up, however. It was different from a coma, Chloe had deduced. Max seemed to be asleep, with a look of discomfort on her face. It was like she was having a horrible nightmare. And despite being asleep, Max had bags under her eyes. As though she were awake and getting no sleep at all. It made no sense at all. Max’s parents had planned on coming down sometime this week to take their daughter away. Not yet. She needed answers. She just needed to wake Max up.

She sat next to Max, looking over at the poor girl. The brown-haired photography nerd looked so sad and tired. Chloe couldn’t help herself, but she felt something odd about her dreams. They seemed more like memories she shouldn’t have. But one thing proved certain. These were more than dreams. Despite having been kicked out of school, Chloe always considered herself a science geek deep down. She wondered if her dreams were something more than that. Having been bedridden for so long, Chloe certainly had a long time to think and well… Looking at Max now something felt clear to her.

Slowly, Chloe rose up from her seat next to Max’s bed and put her hand over Max’s head. Chloe closed her eyes and focused hard. Everything soon faded away, and Chloe, now unconscious, fell back into her chair.

She opened her eyes and looked around. Chloe was in the Dark Room. That’s what the news had called it, and the pictures were leaked online rather quickly so Chloe had seen the room that was housing such horrible things. Looking around a bit, she noticed a clear area that was more lit up than the rest of the room. Max was tied up to a chair and was sitting there, not moving.

“Max!” Chloe yelled, running towards the girl. In the dreamscape, she didn’t have to worry about her wound, she could simply be herself. Leaning down, she looked to Max, whose face was littered with tears. “Max, Max! Are you okay?!”

Max’s eyes traveled up and looked at Chloe dead on. She didn’t look like she was fully there.

“Ch…Chloe? Is that… Is that really you?” She tried to reach out and touch Chloe, but her hands were bound to the chair.

“Yeah… Yeah it’s totally me.” Chloe replied, feeling an extreme amount of sorrow coming from her and the room around her. So, Chloe’s theory was true. Her dreams were something else and she could even go into Max’s dreams as well. It was all very interesting, but for now, she needed to get Max out of here. This dream, or nightmare rather, was all very disturbing. Chloe helped Max out of her bindings and got her up onto her feet.

The brown-haired girl stumbled a little, and Chloe had to keep her held up.

“Are you sure you can walk, Max?”

“I… I don’t really… I don’t know.” Max managed to get out, looking over to Chloe. The girl slowly caressed Chloe’s face. The blue haired girl only blushed, but allowed the girl to do so. Max seemed to have gone through so much. “I knew though… You’d save me… Just like I always saved you.”

“You did save me, Max. Twice. Now I’m gonna wake you up.” Chloe said, taking Max away from the lighted area and towards the giant door. If this didn’t wake Max up, Chloe was unsure what would. She led her to the door, and with a bit of pushing, the door opened up, causing light to stream in.

Chloe shielded her eyes a bit, as she stepped through it with Max in tow.

* * *

When the light faded, Max and Chloe were in her room. Was this still part of the dreamscape? Or was it real? Chloe couldn’t feel the pain in her abdomen, so dream it was then. Chloe sat Max down on the bed and sat down next to her. Light streamed in through the window of the room, and Chloe looked at Max. Suddenly, Max looked so refreshed instead of the mostly dead look she had in comparison.

“Hey Chloe.” Max said, looking out the window a bit. “I guess we haven’t really talked in a while, have we?”

“No we haven’t! You’ve been worrying me, falling unconscious and not waking up! God, you’re worse than me.” Chloe rolled her eyes a bit, as Max laughed a little bit.

“Yeah. I don’t know what happened. But I think I’m almost ready to wake up again.” Max said, looking out the window still and not as Chloe.

“Well that’s good. Glad to hear it. But we need to talk, like now.” Chloe put her hand on Max’s shoulder, and Max turned her head to look at her.

“What about?”

“These dreams I’ve been having, Max.” Chloe said, looking at Max rather seriously. “I’ve been having these really weird dreams that are less like dreams and well…”

“More like memories?”

“Yeah. I knew you’d know that answer.” Chloe replied, furrowing her brow a little bit. “Tell me… what the hell is going on! I’m so confused, and I keep having that dream over and over again.”

“Maybe it’d be best if you didn’t know, Chloe.” Max frowned a bit. “I don’t think anyone should know what happened. You would never believe me anyways.”

“And why’s that?” Chloe asked.

“Because I can rewind, travel, and stop time.” Max said rather plainly.

“Sure, you can, Max.” Chloe rolled her eyes again.

“It’s true. Just like how you’re able to be in my dream right now.” Max replied, twiddling her fingers around in her hand. “I don’t know why I have this power, but I used it… I used it to save you over and over again. But then…”

“Then what…?”

“You told me to let you die.” Max replied. She was starting to close up. Not yet, Max, Chloe thought to herself. “I… I… I…”

“You didn’t let me die though! I’m right here, very much alive and with you Max.”

“You died… so many times. I had to watch every time for so long. Trapped in that Dark Room, watching your deaths on repeat.” Her eyes were starting to look glassy, and her nose was beginning to bleed again. Fuck, fuck, fuck! Chloe wasn’t going to have this happen. She wasn’t going to lose Max again to this insane dream world.

She grabbed Max by the shoulders and looked her deep in the eyes.

“I’m alive Max. And we’re gonna leave this place together, do you understand me? We’re gonna wake up from this dream! And then we’re gonna put this all together, okay?”

Max just nodded and sniffled a little bit as she leaned into Chloe’s neck and laid there. Chloe didn’t argue. It felt right, albeit a bit awkward. It felt like Max had never left all those years ago.

“Let’s wake up then, okay?” Chloe focused hard, as the dream around her faded away.

Chloe’s eyes suddenly shot open and she gasped for air. Max laid there, her nose bleeding, just as her eyes began to open. Chloe smiled widely, as she carefully placed her hand on Max’s.

“I knew you could do it.” Chloe said, mirroring Max’s movements when Chloe was still in her coma.

“T…Thanks Chl… Chloe.” Max said, rather weakly as she wiped her nose clean of the blood. She smiled, again weakly. “Now… let’s talk.”


	6. Memory

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chloe and Max talk again. This action will have consequences.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you all enjoy! This one is a bit shorter, but I wanted to keep it clean and concise. I hope you enjoy! and remember to leave a comment!

Chloe sat and waited for Max to calm down a bit more. Her words were still a bit stilted, and she continued to seem really nervous. Eventually she managed to calm down with some encouragement from Chloe and some deep breaths.

“So… what do you… what would you like to know?” Max asked, taking a few more deep breaths in between her words.

“You knew about my dreams… And when you fell over in my room last week, you looked like you did in my weird ass dream. Knocked out… bleeding from the nose… What the hell is up with all of that, Max?” Chloe tilted her head and looked forward at Max, who put her head down a bit.

“Would you really believe me if I told you?”

“Well considering I just casually dropped into your dream, I’d say there’s a pretty big chance of me believing you. Plus, whatever I saw in there was not your normal nightmare. It was… it was well way worse than that. I saw the pics online, so why the fuck were you having a nightmare about that place?” Chloe asked.

“Because Chloe… I was there… In the Dark Room.”

“…”

“Where to even fucking start…” Max sighed a little bit, curling up her legs to her chest. She looked distressed. Chloe didn’t want to force Max to talk, but at the same time she needed to know. What did those dreams mean? And would she have more of them?

“Just… Just take your time, okay?” Chloe said, leaning back in her chair to be a little bit more comfortable.

“Time… haha. You could say I have a pretty twisted relationship with time. Like I told you, in my dream… I can… I have the power to rewind time to my whims.” Max managed to finally say.

“You weren’t… You weren’t kidding?”

“No, Chloe I wasn’t. And I can prove it too.”

“Prove it? How can you do that? Because it sounds way too cool to be true.” Chloe said, staring at Max a bit. “Did you do it?”

“Hold on, hold on, Chloe. Plus, it’s really not as cool as it sounds, trust me.” Max said, looking over to Chloe. “It just… it’s hard to try and figure out how to prove it. It’s a lot harder to show you now, than last time I did.”

“Last time you did?”

“Oh, right… So remember that week you got shot in the bathroom? I lived through it before.”

“Wait, hold on, you lived through a whole week? And then just rewound it all?”

“Something like that.” Max trailed off for a moment and stared into Max’s eyes. “Except I actually saved you that first week around. I stopped you from being shot.”

“You… stopped me from getting shot?” Chloe tilted her head. “If you stopped me from getting shot, then why the fuck would you go back and let it happen?!” Chloe seemed angry, but that anger scared Max and she flinched, starting to close up again. Chloe sighed a bit, and leaned forward some. “S… Sorry Max. I didn’t mean to freak, just… tell me what happened.”

“Okay, so… That Monday, when you got shot, I went to the bathroom to wash off and calm down after a frightfully embarrassing photo class.” Max began her tale. “But then I saw you get shot. Literally die right in front of me, and… I couldn’t fathom watching someone get shot, and that awakened my power within me. I rewound time, stopping you from getting shot for real by setting off the fire alarm.”

“So… Okay, let me get this straight. You stopped me from getting shot, then went back and let me get shot?”

“I… I didn’t mean for it to go like this.” Max grabbed at her hair and pulled it. “I could go back and stop you from getting shot but… That would reset the timeline again. And I just… get so winded after using my rewind.”

“So, tell me, Max. How can you conclusively prove your rewind power to me?”

“Because you remembered, Chloe.”

“I remembered?”

“The train, you remembered it didn’t you? That was the other time I saved you. A train was coming right for you after we hung out on the train tracks and…”

“You ran into the shed, came down and redirected the tracks so the train would miss me. Then I drove you back to school?”

“Go on…”

“I… I… Holy shit… Kate tried to jump off the roof, didn’t she?” Chloe asked, looking at Max with a dumbfounded look. “I wasn’t there, but you told me that.”

“Yeah I did.”

“But I didn’t…” Chloe had her journal with her and opened it. She read through the last thing she had written, and she hadn’t written that Kate tried to kill herself. “I didn’t write that down. So why did I remember it?”

“I don’t know, Chloe. But something is going wrong here.” Max said, looking over to Chloe with a stern look on her face. “I don’t know what’s happening, but memories are flooding back into people. Kate… She remembered the storm.”

“The storm?” Chloe asked, as Max went silent. She sat there and curled up even more, her hands pulling at her hair some more.

“The storm… is the reason I… I had to come back…” Max finally managed to say. “It was going to wipe out the Bay, and I wanted you to live… but I made the wrong choice…”

“I didn’t…”

“You asked me to let you die in the bathroom so the storm wouldn’t come. So that everyone would be safe…” Max managed to spit out, sounding disgusted with herself. “But I regretted that decision… I just… I wanted you that was it.”

“Me? Why the fuck would anyone want me?” Chloe asked, rolling her eyes a bit.

“We went through so much that week, Chloe.”

“Like what? Like when we went swimming in the Blackwell Pool…?” Chloe put her hand up to her mouth. “Why did I say that?”

“The night after Kate tried to jump, we went to the pool.” Max stated quite plainly. “We almost got caught by security but…”

“But we got to my car and escaped.” Chloe looked at Max for a moment. “I remember that night. We fucked around in the pool, and we went back to my house. I even… I even set my background on my phone to you.” Chloe couldn’t believe it. She was remembering things she shouldn’t have been remembering. But there they were, plain as day in her head. They were memories, alright. Memories of a long gone timeline. She tried her hardest to remember more. But there were only pieces of it.

“Your memory is coming back to you?” Max asked, tilting her head a little. Could it be… Her Chloe was coming back to her?

“I… I don’t know what all this is?” Chloe asked, grabbing her head a bit. The pain in her stomach was being overwhelmed by the newly acquired pain in her head. These memories… She shouldn’t have them! They belonged to a different Chloe, but now they were all over. Her memories being taken and rearranged to fit these old memories.

“Chloe!” That was all Chloe heard as she fell forward, unconscious.

* * *

When Chloe woke up, she saw the storm again. It was heading right for Arcadia Bay. Then the scene switched again. She was sitting in her room with Max. It looked like it was morning, with the sun streaming in through the window.

“I double dare you. Kiss me now.”

Chloe stood there, dumbfounded, as she heard her dream self, or more accurately her alternate timeline self, ask Max to kiss her. And Max did not miss a beat as she stepped up to kiss the taller girl. Chloe touched her lips, remembering every moment again. Just as it went dark and flashed back to the storm.

The storm was horrifyingly big. Was this… the fault of Max using her powers to defy destiny? It had to have been, because this time around the storm never came for Arcadia Bay. No… Chloe told her to let her die? Chloe gripped her head. How could she ever tell someone to do that? Especially Max! How could she force someone to live with her blood on her hands? But it happened. And Max did as Chloe asked. But this time she stepped in. And stopped the bullet from fatally wounding her… She got wounded too in the process.

Fuck.

How could this have happened? Suddenly she saw something else.

_“I just… It’s for your own good, Chloe… Because I love you…”_

Max had said those words. They were in the hospital room, and then… Chloe’s head hurt, but she forced herself to remember. Chloe kicked her out. Chloe mentally kicked herself in the ass for saying something like that to Max, but everything was starting to click now.

As Chloe sat there, memories flashed everywhere. To Chloe picking Max up in her truck to Max saying the most embarrassing thing she had ever heard to Chloe and Max saying goodbye. All of those memories rushed back to her as if she was being hit by her own truck, sending her on the path to memory lane. Every moment, every single second came rushing back to her. Oh my god, Chloe thought to herself. Max…

How could Chloe forget about Max like that? Every moment was a blessing with her. Within five simple days, Chloe had forgotten how Max meant the world to her. Rachel had helped Chloe when Max had left her, but Rachel never felt like this. Every moment was a treasure with Max. 

* * *

Max was in Chloe’s hospital room now. Luckily, Chloe’s stomach didn’t rip open or anything horrendous like that. But she was still unconscious and that was worrying her dearly. She wanted Chloe to just wake up and jump into her arms. To hear the words back. So, she was taken aback when Chloe’s eyes shot open.

The blue-haired girl slowly raised herself up in her bed and looked over to Max. Max got up and leaned over to Chloe.

“Chloe! You woke up, I was so worr-!”

Max was cut off by Chloe grabbing Max into a hug. Max was taken aback, once more, by this sudden change in attitude by Chloe. Was she worth a hug now? No this was something different, as Chloe broke the hug and looked Max straight into her eyes. The two didn’t have to say any words. Those eyes. There were tears running down them. This was her Chloe. Her precious Chloe was here for her again. And as Max began to tear up as well.

“You don’t have to say anything more, Max.” Chloe managed to say through the tears. “I’m so sorry I made you do that, Max. I shouldn’t have done that to you." Chloe sniffled a bit and pulled Max closer. "I'm sorry... Max, I love you too.” Chloe pulled Max in and they kissed. And for that moment, all was perfect.

* * *

More photos of Max and Chloe. There was a growl of annoyance, just as the person scratched out the final picture of Max.

“Soon…” The voice belonged to a woman. Her grey looking hands caressed the photo of Chloe, just as she looked back down at the open red binder. Inside were the photos that Jefferson had taken of Max in the Dark Room.


End file.
